Oregon Men’s Basketball: Ducks Fall to NCAA National Champions, Look To Improve Next Season Behind Altman
by Bryan Kalbrosky
The Louisville Cardinals, who became the 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball champions last night, were the only team to beat the Oregon Ducks in postseason play.
Following their loss to Louisville, Oregon head coach Dana Altman and the University of Oregon Ducks finished a successful season. The accolades were capped off with not only a Pac-12 title, but also a March Madness Sweet Sixteen appearance. Altman’s hard work did not go unrecognized: after taking his team from nowhere and helping turn them into a contender, Altman received the 2013 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award.
When we look back on this 2013 Oregon Ducks Men’s Basketball team, we’ll remember them in a similar light to the 2006-07 squad, led by Aaron Brooks. In his senior year, Brooks averaged 17.7 PPG and solidified his role as a future NBA Draft first round draft pick. Behind the help of his leadership, Oregon finished at 29-8, including a victory over then No. 1 overall UCLA in a match most comparable to the Oregon-Arizona game from 2013 Oregon season.
Of course, the striking similarity between the two teams is that the 2006-07 Oregon Ducks lost to Florida, a loss that (much like this season) came to the eventual national champions. In fact, even the eight-point loss was the exact same deficit that both teams faced in their tournament loss.
The 2006-07 Florida Men’s Basketball boasted NBA talent such as: Joakim Noah (1st round, 9th overall), Al Horford (1st round, 3rd overall) and Corey Brewer (1st round, 7th overall). The 2006-07 Florida team was of historical significance: it was the first time that three players from the same school were picked in the Top 10 selections of an NBA Draft.
The team that Oregon lost to this year was also an impressive force of talent. On March 29, Oregon looked to become the first No. 12 seed to ever defeat a No. 1 seed. Altman and the Ducks came into the match without fear.
“Being able to play against teams like this, this is where we want to be,” said Oregon star E.J. Singler. “I feel like this is where we’re supposed to be.”
When the two teams matched up, Oregon began with a horridly slow start. Oregon struggled to pull in rebounds, had no defensive front, took minimal three-point attempts, had no presence in the paint, and virtually no rhythm. At one point in the first half, Oregon trailed by an unholy 24-8 deficit.
“We weren’t ready and we got smacked,” said Oregon guard Jonathan Loyd. “If we were playing the way were playing in the second half the whole game, it’s a completely different story.”
As Loyd points out, the game turned into one of runs and Oregon was able to bounce back into action. Oregon had the better end of 13-5 and 12-2 streaks, having shot impressively in the second half. But ticktack fouls called on the Ducks as well as unreal play from Smith made the lead too much to overcome.
The Oregon Ducks would eventually end their season with an admirable 77-69 loss to Louisville. It seemed impossible to contain the phenomenal play of Louisville guard Russ Smith. The junior scored 31 points on Oregon in the Louisville victory.
Last night, after Louisville claimed the title over Michigan, Smith joined a tradition of elite third-year talent to defeat Oregon and then declare for the NBA Draft.
“Without Russ Smith…” said Louisville coach Rick Pitino, following their victory over Oregon. “We couldn’t win.”
Pitino, who last night won his first national title since 1996, certainly knows about winning. With his victory over Oregon in the Sweet Sixteen, Pitino improved to 11-0 in regional semifinal appearances. In those matches, Pitino boasted a 21.5 average margin of victory over opposing teams.
The Oregon loss, however, was nothing for Oregon to be ashamed about. In the 13-game Louisville win streak that Louisville bragged coming into the Oregon game, the Cardinals were winning games by an average of 17 points.
In fact, of the last twelve Louisville victories, all but one of them was by greater than 10 points. In their match vs. Louisville, Oregon only lost by 8 points (only 2 points less than the deficit of the title game last night) and trailed by only 6 points with around 5:30 to go.
Even to stand a fighting chance proved that Oregon had come a long way in this season. After all, the Oregon Ducks were projected to finish 7th in the Pac-12 at the start of the season. Altman, who was also awarded Pac-12 Coach of the Year, won the Pac-12 postseason tournament and eventually won a national Coach of the Year honor. It was the fourth most successful season in Oregon Men’s Basketball history.
Altman is also the second coach in Oregon history to record 20-win seasons three years in a row. The first Oregon coach to do such: Howard Hobson. For those of you who were unaware, Hobson led the Oregon “Tall Firs” to win the first ever Men’s Basketball title in NCAA history.
Oregon is graduating Ducks Men’s Basketball all-time wins leader E.J. Singler, tournament darling Arsalan Kazemi, standout sixth man Carlos Emory and pivotal big man Tony Woods.
Next season, however, Oregon returns rising sophomore standouts Dominic Artis and Damyean Dotson. Expect bigger roles from Jonathan Loyd, Waverly Austin and Ben Carter. Perhaps even multisport athlete Arik Armstead and football teammate commits Tyree and Tyrell Robinson may even make more of an impact next season as well.
Regardless, anticipate Oregon basketball to be significant next year at the University of Oregon. The team has made the tournament and made an impact, and fans are not going to forget about these players. Oregon basketball is popularizing on campus as demonstrated by the extreme growth of the student section online brand during basketball season. With this incredible product, fans will certainly want to be at the games next season.
“We’re trying to build a tradition,” said Altman. “We’re trying to build something that consistently competes year in and year out.”
#GoDucks
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Oregon Basketball: Ducks Advance to Sweet 16, Could Surprise Louisville
by Bryan Kalbrosky
Something you should know about this Oregon Ducks team: in Week 13 of the NCAA season, the Oregon Ducks (then 18-2) were ranked No. 10 in the nation.
Louisville, their upcoming opponent in the NCAA Men’s Basketball March Madness Tournament round of Sweet 16 for the Oregon, was then ranked behind the Ducks at No. 12. As the No. 12 seed in the Midwest Bracket, you can call the Oregon Ducks run over Oklahoma State and Saint Louis the work of a Cinderella team looking to upset the Goliath in this tournament.
The more accurate portrayal, however, would just be that this Pac-12 team was wildly under-seeded. Those who have had the misfortune of pulling this streaky team accidentally pulled the short straw here: the ranking is entirely misleading.
After all, the Oregon Ducks (28-8, No. 25 in the nation) would have had an identical record to Louisville had they won the three-game stretch from 1/30 – 2/7 in which Dominic Artis was first injured.
In fact with Artis on the court, the Oregon Ducks have (23-4) nearly an identical winning percentage (.851) to Louisville (.853) on the season.
Even in the four losses that Oregon has suffered with Artis on the court, one was to a ranked team in the Las Vegas tournament. Another was a competitive match that ended in a triple overtime loss on the road against UTEP. The final two occurred while Artis was playing injured to Colorado and Utah.
So maybe this match isn’t so much of a Cinderella story. It certainly didn’t look like such when Oregon defeated Saint Louis on Saturday afternoon.
“We’ll do whatever we have to do to make sure we match up or are better than the team we’re going up against,” said freshman Damyean Dotson.
In fact, Oregon may have gained a bit of a home field advantage in San Jose, with chants from the Oregon Pit Crew student section audible on the television with a sea of yellow in the stands. This forced a bit of a Saint Louis blundering offense, in which the Oregon opponent looked out of their element and unprepared to play and were down 35-19 at the end of the first half.
“We tried to get a lot of backdoor [cuts] and fight pressure with pressure,” said Oregon guard Jonathan Loyd. “Dot got hot and we kept finding him and he kept shooting it.”
The biggest advantage for Oregon was in their shooting. Saint Louis shot only 37.9% from the field, and the Ducks capitalized on the missed opportunities by securing 37 rebounds (compared to Saint Louis: 23) and only allowing three offensive rebounds to Saint Louis all game. Oregon did boast a horrible turnover ratio this game, having turned the ball over 18 times in comparison to the 12 of Saint Louis.
When Oregon did hold the ball, however, they looked pristine. This allowed Oregon to control possession all game, and with smart shooting, the team shot 52.8% from the field. Behind the effort of freshman Dotson (8-12 FG, 23 PTS), Oregon looked miraculous shooting the ball. Dotson also drained 5-of-6 three-point attempts, making a team 8-of-11 compared to the 3-of-21 for Saint Louis.
Oregon won by a score of 74-57 in this game, but at one point secured a 19-point lead that surpassed No. 1 seed Kansas as the biggest deficit that Saint Louis faced this year. Outside of Butler and VCU, Oregon was the only ranked team that Saint Louis had played all season and the Ducks blew them out.
On that same note, Louisville does not have the best record against ranked teams. They dropped three of their first efforts in losses to Duke, Syracuse and Notre Dame. They also have losses to both Georgetown and Villanova, thus proving their mortality.
Once again, it will be the Oregon rebounding (37.4 rebounds per game, nearly identical to the 39.5 from Louisville) and sharp scoring (71.6 PPG, just shy of the 73.6 PPG from Louisville) that will make this a match not to be missed for college basketball fans.
If Oregon can continue that hot shooting and the disruptive defense that allowed Saint Louis to fall from their impressive start (6-of-12) to the poor play (1-of-12) and Oregon to go on a 19-4 run to end the first half, the team can legitimately keep up with any team in the nation.
“Oh yeah, we can beat them,” said Loyd, of No. 1 Louisville. “We can beat them.”
A win over Louisville and a berth in the Elite Eight would be a culture changing victory for Oregon, so be careful because (as Nike Basketball tweeted) Oregon is on fire.
In case you want a shirt for your memories, you can buy one here.
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